A busy day…and climbing!

I feel like so much has happened today!  Maybe a lot has happened.  I woke up at 0300 hrs this morning and got up to take some notes on Neil Gaiman’s Master Class online.  I took notes on the first two lessons, and then made coffee for my mom, whom I woke up at 0500 hrs as she had requested.  I then watched the weather channel and found out that next week’s weather is not supposed to be the nicest possible, but far from the worst possible.  Cooler than normal, mainly, with some rain, which we desperately need, so I am not going to complain.  That said, I helped my mom get ready so that she could go babysit her grandkids and I absorbed some sunlight through the front picture window shortly after feeding the cats and contemplating when to set the plants out and water them.  There was frost on everything this morning, so I could not set them out right away.  They do need their sunlight, though.  I set them out about 0855 hrs or so, it turned out.

I agreed yesterday to meet my friend Rose at the Adaptive Performance Center (APC), a rehabilitation facility specifically for Veterans.  We were to meet at 1000 hrs there.  I did not feel that great this morning, but I was not going to cancel on Rose, so I decided to go in early just to drop off a copy of the book Grit for the Doc, and to pay his office manager $50 on my account with him.  The Doc was in his office, but I did not disturb him.  Next, I met Rose at the APC.  Rose works out surprisingly hard with her present health issues.  She has grit.  I have wondered if I do.  After an hour of working at the gym with Rose, we parted ways and I went to the climbing gym.

I climbed today for the first time since St. Patrick’s Day!  It was great!  I tried out my new La Sportiva Solution Comp climbing shoes, too.  They are perfect!  The adjustments that they made to the shoe interact with my feet in just the ways I anticipated that they would and they are awesome!  I was ecstatic about climbing again, too.  I wore my cloth mask in, sanitized my hands, got my temperature taken, and got the run-down on the new gym procedures and protocols so that they can hopefully stay open during this pandemic.  I bought some alcohol-based liquid chalk (Friction Labs Secret Stuff — the best) and went upstairs to climb on the warm-up boulder problems.  I am very weak after fighting pneumonia for two months, but my technique did not suffer.  I sent several V0 problems and a V1 problem.  That was enough to tire me out today, since I had already worked out at the APC, and I sanitized my hands as I left out the back door of the climbing gym.  I felt great!  What really felt great was taking my face mask off outside and breathing some fresh air (and letting my glasses defog).

Next, I went to my apartment and Jerrold was working, so I did not get to see him, but I did get to see the thank-you card, which was printed announcement-style, from Jerrold’s niece.  The only problem with that was a glaring error in the spelling of college “career”.  It said college “carrier”.  Hopefully that error was on autocorrect’s part and not on Jerrold’s niece’s part, or I might question her college education!  Just kidding.  Mistakes happen.  Unfortunately, that one is a bit hard to overlook.

When I got back to my mom’s house, my computer had finished downloading Microsoft 365, the 2019 version (an upgrade from my Office 2016 version) and I installed it.  I decided that I should have the upgrade if I am going to be doing a lot with Microsoft Word, which it stands to reason that I will be since I am applying for writing programs in the master’s degree realm of SNHU’s online catalog.  Right now, I am applying for the MFA in Creative Writing Degree Program.  I am praying that I get accepted.  I do not know how long it will take the powers that be to decide my fate that way, but I do not want them to decide too soon, or sit on it too long, if you know what I mean.

I am already getting sore from my various workouts and climbing this morning.  It is only 1500 hrs.  Of course, the rosuvastatin may have something to do with the pain, too.  Yes, I am back on the statin for hyperlipidemia, and I have noticed that I get a little more sore every day.  Moving gets a bit more painful, and exercise, I fear, will be more painful yet.  It seems that is going to be the case.  I have to continue moving, or I will lose the ability to do so, though.  Pain is a deterrent.  It makes you not want to do things.  When there is nothing you can do or not do to stop chronic pain, though, then there is a choice to be made in your mind.  It is between learned helplessness and learned optimism.  It comes down to grit.  Passion and perseverance over the long-term — that is grit.  You can give up and go home and waste away, or you can get up, dust yourself off, and try again.  I am definitely of the mindset that you do not quit.  You do not give up.  I spent 16 years trying to gain the education necessary to get into a good medical school, and it broke my heart — and a part of me — to have to leave that behind.  It was clear, though, that further time spent on that particular pursuit was going to get me nowhere fast.  I had already, at the time, spent fully half of my life on higher education to get to that point.  Now, for something different…